Holiday tournament season has now come and gone. January is upon us which means an increase in the number of high-profile matchups between regional and district foes. Who can turn the corner coming out of winter break and make their mark on the region?

Rankings

1. Pulaski County - After going 3 and 0 in Daytona, Florida against out of state competition, the Maroons are now at 13 - 1 on the season. They start off 2023 with a tough road trip to Lincoln County before hosting Rockcastle County.

2a. Danville Christian - The Warriors went 2 - 1 in the holiday tournament at Campbellsville. Their trip ended with an overtime victory over host Campbellsville. They have a huge week this week as they host Corbin, face the Danville Admirals in the first version of this season's crosstown showdown and finish off the week at Lincoln County's Patriot Classic where they square off with Wayne County.

2b. Danville - The Admirals went 2 and 1 in the Ellis Trucking Christmas Classic at Mercer County. They face Southwestern, Danville Christian and Garrard County this week. This game between DCA represents a huge opportunity for Danville when it comes to district seeding but is also a prelude to the rematch that will happening the following week in the first round of the regional All A tournament as they square off again.

4. Lincoln County - A 2 - 1 trip in the Ashland Invitational included wins over Henry Clay and Perry County Central. Tramane Alcorn is up to 17 points per game. The Patriots start the week off by hosting the mighty Maroons of Pulaski County before hosting McCreary Central and Southwestern. The Patriots do not return to the road until January 17th and look to capitalize off this long home stretch.

5. McCreary County - The Raiders went 2 - 1 at the Monticello Bank Classic at Wayne County. They start 2A Sectional play against Bell County this week while also squeezing in a game against Somerset Christian before finishing off the week with a road trip to Lincoln County where they will look to show everyone that they deserve to be in the regional contender conversation.

6. Wayne County - The Cardinals went 1 - 2 in their Monticello Bank Classic. They host Somerset Christian and Boyle County before traveling to Lincoln County to face Danville Christian in the Patriot Classic.

7. West Jessamine - The Colts went 1 - 2 in the White, Greer and Maggard Classic at Lexington Catholic. They face Burgin, East Jessamine and Dunbar this week.

8. Garrard County - The Golden Lions went 1 - 2 in the South Oldham Christmas Tournament. Ethan Cooper is sitting above 24 points per game. They face district foes Boyle County and Danville this week before hosting Apollo. 

9. Somerset - The Briar Jumpers blew out Logan County before defeating Somerset Christian. Ben Godby is averaging over 18 points per game while also averaging over 7 rebounds. They face Rockcastle County and Casey County on the road this week.

10. Boyle County - The Rebels are still looking for their stride but did manage to go 2 - 1 in the Ellis Trucking Christmas Classic, defeating host Mercer County in overtime on the final day. They face Garrard County and Wayne County this week.

11. Mercer County

12. Casey County

13. Rockcastle County

14. Southwestern

15. East Jessamine

16. Somerset Christian

17. Burgin

18. Trinity Christian

19. Kentucky School for the Deaf

let's talk at the end of January don/t get caught up in something that makes no sense now. You are kissing your sister at this point.

I think the top 4 are clearly the 4 best teams in the region right now. I still think West Jessamine will join that group as we move forward. Otherwise, the rest of the 5-11 ranked teams are very hard to separate, but are in the next tier as they’re better than the rest that are ranked below them. I just don’t see any of them having the talent to be on the level of the first 5, even by the end of January and into February.

Wow made the trip to Lincoln tonight and Wow! They play the way they did tonight and it’s lights out for everyone else. Very reminiscent of last years finals  Patriot team tonight. They were really solid. 

Maybe it’s a big 1?  Tried to tell you PC is not the same beast they were last year.  They’re smaller and play 6 guys. Their length last year made them a terror.   They started 4 guys last season 6”4 or bigger.  They start 1 this year, so the rim protection is simply not there. 

Danville also lost @ Sw tonight.  Maybe it’s time to give the “bottom feeders” a crack at the big 4.  There’s more parity in this region 1-12 than I’ve seen ever! 

13 minutes ago, LethalPG said:

Danville also lost @ Sw tonight.  Maybe it’s time to give the “bottom feeders” a crack at the big 4.  There’s more parity in this region 1-12 than I’ve seen ever! 

Danville won tonight. 

36 minutes ago, AdmiralFan71 said:

Danville won tonight. 

It was reported @ one time on scoreboard that SW had one.  Point being is the same, seeing a lot of tight games within region 

It helps having all your big games on your home court. We see what happens when Lincoln County plays on the road this year. I still think DCA will be the toughest out going forward. 

7 hours ago, Statsdontlie said:

It helps having all your big games on your home court. We see what happens when Lincoln County plays on the road this year. I still think DCA will be the toughest out going forward. 

Doesn’t Lincoln now host both their district and regional tournaments this year? And I guess we will see soon enough but I don’t think DCA beats Lincoln. I still think they’re top 3, but unlikely to get past Lincoln.

24 minutes ago, QueenoftheSouth said:

Doesn’t Lincoln now host both their district and regional tournaments this year? And I guess we will see soon enough but I don’t think DCA beats Lincoln. I still think they’re top 3, but unlikely to get past Lincoln.

District was at Danville last season and it's supposed to be alphabetical which would mean it's at DCA, but if Garrard was supposed to host maybe the order got switched around; such as it does from time to time.

Lincoln is definitely hosting region, though.

The last month leaves a lot to wonder in the 45th. Garrard beats DCA @ DCA. Lincoln crushes Pulaski. Boyle beats Garrard last night. Going to be fun!

46 minutes ago, Lank said:

District was at Danville last season and it's supposed to be alphabetical which would mean it's at DCA, but if Garrard was supposed to host maybe the order got switched around; such as it does from time to time.

District was moved to Lincoln this season due to water issues at the Garrard gym. Expectations are the district will be at Garrard in 2024 and then back to the normal rotation after that.

9 hours ago, Statsdontlie said:

It helps having all your big games on your home court. We see what happens when Lincoln County plays on the road this year. I still think DCA will be the toughest out going forward. 

Lincoln won the region @ Pulaski against Pulaski last season...  I agree it does help, but Lincoln has only won the region on their home floor in 2007 and 2019.

There will definitely be some shake up among the top 4 next week. This has been mentioned before in these review threads, but one of the most dominant features of the 12th is that there are so many teams that have a simply dominant set of 2 or 3 players but very little depth beyond the starting lineup. That argument can basically be made for every team in the top ten. And Lincoln probably has the best set of top talented players and you saw that translate last night. That doesn't always happen like that but when it does for the Patriots they are going to be near impossible to beat.

1 hour ago, se7ens said:

There will definitely be some shake up among the top 4 next week. This has been mentioned before in these review threads, but one of the most dominant features of the 12th is that there are so many teams that have a simply dominant set of 2 or 3 players but very little depth beyond the starting lineup. That argument can basically be made for every team in the top ten. And Lincoln probably has the best set of top talented players and you saw that translate last night. That doesn't always happen like that but when it does for the Patriots they are going to be near impossible to beat.

Agree 100% when they're shooting the rock like they did last night it's lights out for everyone else.